British Council had large numbers of high quality english learning videos on hand but lacked  a sales platform. They saw these videos as business potentials and intended to develop a learning app targeted children aged 6 - 11. One of their major concerns was the unattractiveness of the existing mascot monsters for children; therefore, giving monsters makeover was one of the project requirements.

SOLUTIONS ■

Similar to what the app name Playtime suggested,English learning should be fun and playful. We designed a lovely Monster Village, a place that was full of adventure. The songs and stories were  grouped into themes, and children could explore monster houses to read and watch these video materials. Each video pack came with challenging games for children to practise using and pronouncing the new words, helping them gain confidence in English. Upon children’s completion of all activities, bonus items would be unlocked in the village view.

Undoubtedly, parents want to get involved in their children’s learning progress. Progress report provided various pieces of information for parents to know about how much their children have improved in four areas: videos, speaking, spelling and understanding.

Learn English through fun, animated song and story videos. Playtime helps children develop in  reading, listening, speaking and grammar.

Seasonal limited themes

CHALLENGES ■

It was the era of iPhone 5s when we first developed Playtime. To cope with the requirement of the newer generations of Apple products, we conducted large UI fix on Playtime over time. Village view was the most challenging part. Since it was not a responsive layout, every change of iPhone design that involved an upgrade of the screen size and sensor housing (especially for the iPhone X+ models) would distort the layout of the Village view to a great extent.

Moreover, we realized that the design of Monster Village was not as user-friendly. The ‘length’ of the village was too long, where the users' incentives of  explorating the village may be eliminated. Then, we fine tuned the village design, and gave it a higher flexibility for future extension, so that clients can add new video packs with lower development cost.

Giving the existing mascot monsters makeover was one of the project assignment.

RESULTS ■

Playtime has launched over 5 years, got a 4.4+ rating in App Store and continuous positive feedback from the end users. Keep improving is a key to survive in competitive app markets. There were only 8 video packs included in the first launch. As of now, there are over 20 packs, more than 100 quality animated songs stories for children. Playtime also plays a good demonstration on retaining customers’ loyalty by addressing customer concerns proactively. 

Reviews from users

Playtime dominated App Stores in the top 10 download list in education category and was featured in the columns of ‘Best New Apps’ & ‘Recommended Apps & Games’.

Playtime is the first mobile app project I worked independently and is of great significance of my UX profession. There were many challenges at the beginning: Our client  were not satisfied with the design of the mascot monsters and village after several rounds of feedback loops; hard deadlines for the intensive illustration and animation productions; was stuck with the complex of app flow design. Now in retrospect, this project was a great lesson for me to train my UX/UI skills and the ability to work under pressure in a fast-paced agency environment. I am really proud of being one of the members who contributed to this project and the hard work of everyone.

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